Mocktar Dicko, a Nigerian peasant, comes looking for work in Essekane, a gold mine in Northeast Burkina Faso. In this cage made of wind and dust, he hopes to forget the past that haunts him. He becomes friend with his boss and his colleagues (Thiam, Paté and Tidiane) and with a prostitute Tabassa and a young widow, Coumba, who dreams about sending her daughter to Denmark, where her uncle lives. While becoming familiar with his new life, Mocktar Dicko starts to loose his roots. The day he discover a piece of gold, decides not to go home and offers the money earned by selling the gold to Coumba.